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Daily Globe produces promotional video for city

WORTHINGTON -- The critics have spoken: A new movie about Worthington has been given a unanimous thumbs up.

In this case, the movie is a promotional video touting the Worthington community, and the critics are board members of the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau, who recently debuted the project at their monthly meeting.

"It's very well done. It does a good job of showcasing what our community has to offer," said Chamber President Amanda Walljasper following the viewing. "I feel like the committee worked really hard to make sure we ended up with a quality product. I'm excited to see everyone's reaction."

The project, which took about a year to complete, was spearheaded by the Chamber's marketing committee, composed of Chamber Director Darlene Macklin, Amber Luinenburg from Minnesota West Community and Technical College and Joni Harms of the Daily Globe.

The last promotional video had been done a number of years ago, and they decided it was overdue for an update. The committee did some research to map out what they wanted in a video before filming began.

"We spent a lot of time looking at other communities' videos, because we wanted to be able to use this as more of a social media platform," explained Luinenburg.

The previous video had been done by an outside marketing company; this time around, they utilized the videography skills of Aaron Hagen, community content coordinator at the Daily Globe.

"We're excited that we were able to do it with a local company here in Worthington," said Macklin, adding that it fit in with the organization's emphasis on shopping locally.

"Video is something we're trying to expand upon," noted Harms. "Our company has put a lot of time, effort and resources into it. We're trying to broaden our horizons and hope it will lead to more opportunities with other companies. We knew when we were chosen for this project that we had to step up our game, so we purchase a high-definition camera so we could put out a professional end product."

Hagen had previously shot and edited footage for the Daily Globe's website, but producing what amounts to a five-minute documentary took new techniques and technology.

"Aaron was instrumental in the layout, video footage and voice-over," credited Luinenburg. "We were lucky he was able to take the project from start to finish."

For Hagen, the challenge was to pack a lot of information and Worthington highlights into the five-minute end product. He shot 579 clips, encompassing 12 hours, 47 minutes and 1 second of footage. During the Windsurfing Regatta and Unvarnished Music Festival alone, he shot three hours of footage, and another two hours during King Turkey Day festivities.

"To pick out two or three clips to encompass the whole event was the difficult part," Hagen said. "The biggest challenge was to try to show off Worthington and all that we have, because there's a lot more than people think. So we had to be selective to a certain extent. We wanted to show off our parks and our lake, and the community celebrations. Those were things that were important to us. I think the biggest thing is just realizing how much there is in Worthington to see and do. You don't realize that until you start videotaping it."

Luinenburg and Hagen collaborated on getting aerial footage of the community utilizing a helicopter owned by Luinenburg's family.

"I'm scared of heights to begin with, and then they took the doors of the helicopter off. It ended up being fun, and a great experience, but that was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done in my life," recalled Hagen.

"They got shots of the community that people will probably never see otherwise," noted Harms.

In addition to the video footage, Daily Globe photographer Brian Korthals captured still images of their aerial adventure. One such photo is used on the labels for the finished DVDs.

"The DVDs will be available to businesses to recruit employees," said Macklin. "We highlighted things to see and do in Worthington because we plan to take it along with us to travel and tour shows."

"That will make a great package, along with the Worthington travel guide," added Harms.

The Chamber board and officials see lots of avenues for promoting the community through this new video.

"We realize how important marketing our community is," said Luinenburg. "This is not a new concept, but it's one that will make us more relevant. In five minutes, it really gives a cool overview of what we have to offer in Worthington."

Copies of the Worthington DVD are available to businesses at the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce, 1121 Third Ave. The video can be viewed on the Chamber website, www.worthingtonmnchamber.com; or at www.dglobe.com. For more information, contact the Chamber, 372-2919.

Beth Rickers is the veteran in the newspaper staff with 25 years as the Daily Globe's Features Editor. Interests include cooking, traveling and beer tasting and making with her home-brewing husband, Bryan. She writes an Area Voices blog called Lagniappe, which is a Creole term that means "a little something extra." It can be found at http://lagniappe.areavoices.com/.